R. Harrison's Blog, page 29
March 7, 2016
Spring Flowers #MondayBlogs
The daffodils were out, and so was I.
And one crocus.
The trick to getting good photographs is simple. Watch the light, get close, and pay attention to the composition. It also helps that I’m using a digital SLR and taking several shots. (I mean it’s only electrons.) I also use a polarizing filter to enhance color and cut down on the glare.
March 5, 2016
The Art of Deception 4 #wewriwar #amwriting
or Pride and Extreme Prejudice
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. This week I continue another book, that will eventually come out via booktrope. It’s a spy story set in late Georgian England, the year before Trafalgar. Last week I introduced the romantic male lead. He was stuck in Washington as the Military attache. Captain Meriwether Lewis makes a brief appearance in this week’s snippet when he explains to Mr Merry and Lord Fitzpatrick (Roderick), why he is no longer welcome in the US.
The footman returned with Captain Lewis; he, Captain Lewis that is, carried a jemmy, “I believe this is yours.”
“No,” Lord Fitzpatrick replied, “never seen it before; what is it?”
“A jemmy or crowbar; are you certain you’ve never seen it?”
“I am a gentleman.”
“That is debatable; however, this jemmy is made in Sheffield, of finest English spring steel; stamped by its makers.”
“I see – where did you find it?”
“I didn’t, Mr Jefferson did – in his office.”
“Ah.”
“We can’t understand what it was doing there; you say you are certain it’s not yours.”
“Absolutely.”
Please see the other talented writers in Weekend Writing Warriors.
Needless to say Captain Lewis does not believe Roderick.
I’ve also released a sweet regency romance, Miss DeVere This is a fun read, and unlike “The curious profession of dr craven” seems to not carry a curse.
Frankenkitty is available.
What happens when teenagers get to play with Dr Frankenstien’s lab notebooks, a few odd chemicals and a great big whopping coil? Mayhem, and possibly an invitation to the Transylvanian Neuroscience Summer School.
Get Free Stuff and try out my landing page. There are three free complete short stories (including an ARC for Frankenkitty) available after you’ve gone through the hoops.
March 4, 2016
Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School.
Sometimes life imitates art. I just had a message about the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS) on my work email. They’re accepting applications. I wonder if Amber should apply?
Austerity
Janet Loxley Lewis
From “Cold Hills”
I have lived so long
On the cold hills alone …
I loved the rock
And the lean pine trees,
Hated the life in the turfy meadow,
Hated the heavy, sensuous bees.
I have lived so long
Under the high monotony of starry skies,
I am so cased about
With the clean wind and the cold nights,
People will not let me in
To their warm gardens
Full of bees.
March 3, 2016
Thaw
Henry David Thoreau, 1816 – 1861
I saw the civil sun drying earth’s tears —
Her tears of joy that only faster flowed,
Fain would I stretch me by the highway side,
To thaw and trickle with the melting snow,
That mingled soul and body with the tide,
I too may through the pores of nature flow.
But I alas nor tinkle can nor fume,
One jot to forward the great work of Time,
‘Tis mine to hearken while these ply the loom,
So shall my silence with their music chime.
The picture is from a rare Georgia snowstorm at Cloudland Canyon.
March 2, 2016
Call of the Night
Djuna Barnes, 1892 – 1982
Dark, and the wind-blurred pines,
With a glimmer of light between.
Then I, entombed for an hourless night
With the world of things unseen.
Mist, the dust of flowers,
Leagues, heavy with promise of snow,
And a beckoning road ‘twixt vale and hill,
With the lure that all must know.
A light, my window’s gleam,
Soft, flaring its squares of red—
I loose the ache of the wilderness
And long for the fire instead.
You too know, old fellow?
Then, lift your head and bark.
It’s just the call of the lonesome place,
The winds and the housing dark.
March 1, 2016
If—
Rudyard Kipling, 1865 – 1936
Kipling has sort of gone out of style, but this is one of his best. I remember reading it as a boy and still try to live that way. (I don’t always succeed.)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
February 29, 2016
Time for a new pack #MondayBlogs
After nearly six years of hard use my trusty REI flash 50 pack has finally broken. It split a seam just before a fun backpacking trip at Pine Mountain State park on Saturday. I must say it held up fine, but it’s time for a new one. Since this is largely a photo blog, I’ll commemorate it with a few photos of its journeys. Nearly every back-country journey I’ve made since then has used it (Philmont excepted). The others used a Mariposa Plus which is also seeing its age. It also was an excellent carry on bag – I could fly for a two-week trip to England with it as carry on. Still met the size requirements unlike those massive rollerbags. Then it served as a daypack, lugging water and cameras up mountains from Wales to Devon and parts in between.
The featured image is from it’s inaugural voyage, a 24 mile weekend at Henry Coe state park. Only a few miles from San Jose, this state park is steep, stark and relatively unused. I was the backpacker one weekend in December.
Other gear, like this Sylon tarp haven’t fared so well. (It leaks in a hard rain).
Misty fog filled the valley’s that night
Supporting coastal range newts – these are not lizards, but actual amphibians, living in a surprisingly dry environment.
It’s also a place of great beauty.
I used this pack with the scouts in order to demonstrate that light-weight backpacking did not require expensive equipment. These photos are from another trip to Pine Mountain and show my trailstar (Mountain Laurel designs which is worth its weight in gold.)
As a Day pack it’s been to the top of Mount Snowdon
This is the “devil’s kitchen” We parked by that lake. The one in the distance.
The Peak district near Hayfield and Kinder Scout.
That is the trail.
Dartmoor
Standing Indian (on the AT in North Carolina)
And many others. It will be missed. Bushwhacking like this was never an issue.
February 26, 2016
Grilled Curried Country Ribs #easyrecipe
This is another easy recipe and one that crosses several cultural divides.
Marinate about 1.5 pounds of country ribs (pork) in:
2 tablespoons soy sauce.
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon corn starch (corn flour in the UK)
1 teaspoon hot madras curry powder
1 teaspoon ginger
Country ribs are thin bits of pork that are cut from the bone. It should look like this:
Meanwhile start your coals. I use a chimney starter and chunk charcoal. Briquettes have a binder that adds a distinctly unpleasant taste to food grilled over them. The coals are ready when the flames start to poke out of the upper layer of coals. 
When the coals are ready start to grill the meat.
This goes well with sauteed parsnips. After peeling and cutting, saute in oil and a touch of margarine or butter.
When it’s done retrieve it from the grill and enjoy.
The Art of Deception #wewriwar #Fridayreads
or Pride and Extreme Prejudice
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. This week I continue another book, that will eventually come out via booktrope (hope springs eternal.) It’s a spy story set in late Georgian England, the year before Trafalgar. Alice’s somewhat shady Uncle Grey has come to make her an offer she can’t refuse. Last week’s snippet is after Lord Grey inquires about Alice’s hopes on the marriage mart. He’s making the offer they can’t refuse. This week I introduce the romantic lead. He is, for the moment, stuck in Washington as a military attache. He and Mr Anthony Merry the new (actual at the time) British ambassador are discussing life in this trying provincial city.
“I say, Roddy, how did ever you stick it here? All that time you spent here after Sir Robert returned home; it must have been dashed difficult for you; The Jonathan’s,” He shook his head, “Their manners leave much to be desired.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That Jefferson fellow, didn’t you find him rude? I mean he called my wife a ‘virago’, and Elizabeth, whatever her failings is not that.”
“She’s a lovely woman, well-mannered and gracious; if you want to meet a virago, you need only talk to the Dowager Fitzpatrick.”
“So that’s why you haven’t married? Still, can you imagine inviting us and the French charge de affairs to the same private dinner; we’re at war; it’s just not done.”
Roderick shrugged, “I just ignore the slights; treat their politics like a spectator sport; it’s almost as much fun as ratting or the cockpit; as for marriage, you know I find these provincials even more tedious than the butterflies and damsels of the London Ton.”
“De gustibus and all that I suppose.”
Please see the other talented writers in Weekend Writing Warriors.
Having lived in the Washington metropolitan area, it’s still a trying provincial city.
I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written. I’ll be in the woods with a bunch of scouts this weekend, which means that my replies will be somewhat delayed. I’m not quite up to backpacking a satellite link. It would go against my ultra-light esthetic.
I’ve also released a sweet regency romance, Miss DeVere This is a fun read, and unlike “The curious profession of dr craven” seems to not carry a curse.
Frankenkitty is available.
What happens when teenagers get to play with Dr Frankenstien’s lab notebooks, a few odd chemicals and a great big whopping coil? Mayhem.
Get Free Stuff and try out my landing page. There are three free complete short stories (including an ARC for Frankenkitty) available after you’ve gone through the hoops.
